SEX-CHANGE vicar the Reverend Dian Parry has offered her services to the police as a transgender issues consultant.

SEX-CHANGE vicar the Reverend Dian Parry has offered her services to the police as a transgender issues consultant.

The 64-year-old from Croeserw in Port Talbot's Upper Afan Valley, who was formerly a bearded blacksmith called Bill, believes police need guidance in dealing with the sensitive subject.

A new government initiative wants police forces to consult more closely with minority groups such as travellers and gay and lesbian communities.

It has also suggested speaking to those who have changed sex or are in the process of changing sex, particularly as the Trans Gender Bill, which could become law later this year, will give people who have undergone a sex change new rights.

Rev Parry said, "Given the publicity I have attracted over the years I am surprised I have not been asked. People in my position are vulnerable to bullying and anti-social behaviour from neighbours who have little understanding of the issues involved.

"I would be very interested in giving the police in South Wales the benefit of my experience."

Rev Parry, an evangelical minister, Rev Parry shocked parishioners in chapels in the Afan Valley after announcing he was becoming a woman.

Preaching engagements organised years in advance dropped to zero soon after the announcement was made.

The minister claims to have suffered years of harassment locally. And after undergoing surgery to become a woman she fought legal battles after being forced to use male facilities at public buildings.

South Wales Police say they are liaising with a wide variety of minority groups and are in the process of increasing links with them.

Ironically, although Rev Parry has been a tireless campaigner for the Trans Gender Bill, she believes she may be unlikely to benefit from it because it may mean her having to dissolve her marriage of 44 years to her wife Anita.

The bill in its current form would allow those who have changed sex to apply for a "transgender licence".